Catholic Scholars commend the witness of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC)

November 17, 2016

We, the undersigned Catholic scholars, express our gratitude to, and our solidarity with, the Church of God in Christ and Presiding Bishop Charles E. Blake. We deeply admire your profound commitment and bold witness to the sanctity of human life in all stages and conditions and to the protection of the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable from womb to tomb. We applaud your work to uphold marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife and to rebuild the marriage-based family as the fundamental unit of society and the original and best department of health, education, and welfare. We acknowledge with gratitude your devotion to the cause of religious freedom at home as well as abroad and your labors to protect the conscience rights of the Little Sisters of the Poor and people of all faiths and shades of belief.

We pledge to stand with you, our Christian brothers and sisters of the historic Black church, and to work arm in arm with you in Christ-like self-sacrificial love to build in America a true culture of life and of family life. To the cultured despisers of religion and Biblical morality, we say we love you, but we will oppose you—and with our COGIC friends we will strive not so much to defeat you in a cultural and political struggle as to open your hearts and minds to the life-preserving and love-affirming truths of the Gospel that reason knows and faith confirms.

The historic Black church and the Catholic Church in America, though allies in many struggles, have been too much like strangers to each other for too long. It should not have taken the unprecedented moral challenges we now face, or the abject failures of our political elites, to bring us closer together. For this we apologize to God. But with His help and by His truly amazing grace, we pledge to be strangers no longer. Let us unite as "soldiers of the cross" to bring revival, healing, and righteousness to our people.

Sincerely,

Robert P. George, J.D., D.Phil., D.C.L.

McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence

Princeton University

Mary Ann Glendon, J.D., LL.M.

Learned Hand Professor of Law

Harvard Law School

Michael Novak

Catholic University of America

Gerard V. Bradley, J.D.

Professor of Law

University of Notre Dame

Hadley Arkes, Ph.D.

Edward N. Ney Professor of Jurisprudence and American Institutions emeritus

Amherst College

George Weigel

Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies

Ethics and Public Policy Center

Adrian Vermeule, J.D.

Ralph S. Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law

Harvard Law School.

John C. Cavadini, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Theology

University of Notre Dame

Dermot A. Quinn, D.Phil.

Professor of History and Director of Graduate Studies

Seton Hall University

Matthew Franck, Ph.D.

Director, Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution

Witherspoon Institute

Michael Reynolds, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Near Eastern Studies

Princeton University

Edward Whelan, J.D.

President

Ethics and Public Policy Center

R.R. Reno, Ph.D.

Editor-in-Chief

First Things

Teresa Collett, J.D.

Professor of Law

University of St. Thomas

Robert Koons, Ph.D.

Professor of Philosophy

University of Texas at Austin

Mark Bauerlein, Ph.D.

Professor of English

Emory University

Senior Editor, First Things

Rev. Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P., Ph.D., S.T.D.
Professor of Biology and of Theology
Providence College

Francis J. Beckwith, Ph.D.

Professor of Philosophy & Church-State Studies

Co-Director, Program in Philosophical Studies of Religion (Institute for   
        Studies of Religion)

Baylor University

Melissa Moschella, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy

The Catholic University of America

J. Budziszewski, Ph.D.

Professor of Government and Philosophy

University of Texas at Austin

Christopher Kaczor, Ph.D.

Professor of Philosophy

Loyola Marymount University

Rev. Thomas Petri, O.P., S.T.D.

Vice President and Academic Dean

Assistant Professor of Moral Theology

Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception

Dominican House of Studie

R. J. Snell, Ph.D.

Director, Center on the University and Intellectual Life

Witherspoon Institute

Senior Fellow, Agora Institute for Civic Virtue and Common Good

O. Carter Snead, J.D.

William P. and Hazel B. White Director, Center for Ethics and Culture

Professor of Law

University of Notre Dame

Alexander Pruss, Ph.D.

Professor of Philosophy

Baylor University

Mark Regnerus, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Sociology

University of Texas at Austin

Senior Fellow, Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture

Rev. Prof. Stephen L. Brock, Ph.D.
Pontifical University of the Holy Cross

Aaron Kheriaty, M.D.

Associate Professor of Psychiatry

University of California, Irvine

Rev. Joseph Koterski S.J., Ph.D.

Fordham University

Robert A. Destro, J.D.

Professor of Law and Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Law & Religion
Columbus School of Law

The Catholic University of America

Carson Holloway, Ph.D.

Political Scientist

Patrick Lee, Ph.D.
John N. and Jamie D. McAleer Professor of Bioethics
Director, Institute of Bioethics
Franciscan University of Steubenville

Christopher Tollefsen, Ph.D.

Professor of Philosophy

University of South Carolina

John M. Haas, Ph.D., S.T.L., M.Div.

President

The National Catholic Bioethics Center

Christopher Wolfe, Ph.D.

Professor of Politics

University of Dallas

Ralph Martin, S.T.D.

Sacred Heart Major Seminary

Archdiocese of Detroit

Monica Migliorino Miller, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Religious Studies

Madonna University

Eduardo Echeverria, Ph.D., S.T.L.

Professor of Philosophy and Systematic Theology

Sacred Heart Major Seminary

Archdiocese of Detroit

Matthew Levering, Ph.D.

James N. and Mary D. Perry, Jr. Chair of Theology

University of St. Mary of the Lake

Rev. Thomas Berg, Ph.D.

Professor of Moral Theology

St. Joseph’s Seminary (Dunwoodie)

Maggie Gallagher

Senior Fellow

American Principles Project

John Grabowski, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Director of Moral Theology/Ethics

School of Theology and Religious Studies

The Catholic University of America

Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D.

William E. Simon Senior Research Fellow

The Heritage Foundation

Mark Latkovic, S.T.D.

Professor of Moral Theology

Sacred Heart Major Seminary

Archdiocese of Detroit

Christian Brugger, D.Phil.
J. Francis Cardinal Stafford Professor of Moral Theology
Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary

C.C. Pecknold, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Systematic Theology

School of Theology and Religious Studies
The Catholic University of America

Rev. Kevin L. Flannery, S.J., Ph.D.

Professor of Philosophy

Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana

Rome

Lee J. Strang, J.D.

John W. Stoepler Professor of Law & Values

University of Toledo College of Law

Michael A. Scaperlanda. Ph.D.

President

St. Gregory’s University

Stephen M. Krason, J.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science and Legal Studies

Franciscan University of Steubenville

President, Society of Catholic Social Scientists

Prof. Ronald J. Rychlak, J.D.

Jamie L. Whitten Chair of Law and Government 

The University of Mississippi School of Law

Kevin Govern, J.D., LL.M.

Professor of Law

Ave Maria School of Law

John M. Breen, J.D.

Professor of Law

Loyola University Chicago

Mary Rice Hasson

Director, Catholic Women's Forum

Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center

Bill Piatt

Professor of Law

Former Dean (1998-2007)

St. Mary's University School of Law

[Affiliations for identification purposes]